A New Member of My Care Team - Eye Doctor

  When I think back to my prior knowledge of cancer, I realize how naive I was to the entire experience. I guess you could call me fortunate, not having to navigate that world as a child, but experiencing it now, I realize how poorly we generally understand this world.

 I knew cancer treatment involves a medical oncologist and sometimes a radiation oncologist, but that was the extent of the care team I would expect to be involved in providing cancer care. Eight months later into my currently expected 15 month treatment course, I've had to add a few more medical professionals to my care team list. 

Here they are, listed in order of when they joined my team:

Primary Care Physician - Identified my cancer; Coordinated team for diagnosis and treatment; Manages side effects of all my medications, unfortunately, often with new medications, with their own new side effects

Interventional Radiologist - Read mammogram and ultrasound and performed ultrasound guided biopsy and clip placement; Later placed radioactive seed for identification of tumor for lumpectomy

Medical Oncologist - Manages chemotherapy and other targeted medications

Dentist - Manages dry mouth from medications and any implications to gum and dental health

Radiologic Technologist - Provided radioactive tracer for sentinel node biopsy prior to procedure

Surgeon (and entire OR team) - Managed removal of tumor with lumpectomy

Plastic Surgeon (and entire OR team) - Managed oncoplastic reduction reconstruction post lumpectomy

Radiation Oncologist - Manages radiotherapy treatment and associated skin reactions

Dermatologist (Skin Doctor) - Managing my skin related drug reaction

Ophthalmologist (Eye Doctor) - Managing my severe dry eyes and new astigmatism

Licensed Clinical Social Worker - Managing navigation of life changes and impacts of medication side effects

Your care team could also include:

Wound Care Professional - Depending on wound care needs post surgery and radiotherapy - I took care of this myself

Chaplain/Religious Support Member - Managing navigation of life changes

Physical, Occupational, or Speech Therapists - Depending on mobility, activities of daily living, range of motion, strength, endurance, or speaking/swallowing issues during treatment

 All that to say that I now need glasses, likely due to a combination of age (I am almost 40!) and chemotherapy related eye changes. I'll try to take an updated picture when I get them since I haven't shown my massive hair growth yet! I'll kill two birds with one stone.

 For my dry eyes, my optometrist recommends hot compresses and using these eye drops: